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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Tall, black cyclone fencing and dark screen barriers are in place on the White House north lawn as a long-anticipated utility improvement project gets underway.

(Credit: CBS/ Peter Maer)

It will be a big dig on a wide swath of the postcard-scene lawn just to the left of what is often seen as the front door to the White House. Officials say antiquated utility connections must be replaced. The work is creating a new maze for White House staffers, official guests and media personnel who work at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The traditional entrance through what is known as the Northwest Gate will be blocked by the work. That means diplomatic motorcades will be directed to other routes instead of the traditional West Wing entrance where Marines stand watch.

Media types and others arriving at the gate are being directed to a sidewalk that approaches the White House Portico, but they won't enter through that hallowed doorway. Instead, under the always-watchful eye of the Secret Service, they'll walk down a flight of outdoor steps that lead to the briefing room level.

There's talk of erecting a temporary platform so that TV crews beaming reports from the familiar North Lawn scene will be able to shoot an unobstructed view over the construction work.

Tourists outside the White House fence will likely readjust their camera shots to get a "clean view" of the majestic North Portico.

Dozens of construction workers lined up outside the White House for security clearances so they could begin the project.

Peter Maer is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here.

Maze Topic in the news

Sharp stock market drop likely human, computer error

By Lucas Mearian

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted almost 1,000 points in a half-hour today, the cause of which appears to be human error exacerbated by a market made more volatile by high-speed trades and automatic sale orders that are measured in milliseconds.

Sources said a trader attempting to short-sell 16 million shares of S&P 500 stock, possibly involving Proctor & Gamble profits, entered a "b" for billion instead of an "m" for million. That error sent high frequency traders scurrying, causing liquidity to vanish.

The Dow fell as low as 9,867 points from its previous day's close of 10,868 before rebounding to 10,464 points by the close of the market today.

Chris Nagy, managing director of order routing strategy at TD Ameritrade, was moderating a panel on market structure at a trade operations conference at about 2 p.m. EST, when he was notified of the market drop.

"It seemed a little suspicious at the time. That's our conclusion," Nagy said. "But we've warned the SEC [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission] of a lot of the problems created with some of the high-frequency trading in the marketplace."

"When you have some algorithmic error, which this is appearing to be, the impact of that trade caused the pricing in the markets to collapse," Nagy continued.

For example, Nagy said some of TD Ameritrade's client orders, where the normal price of the stock was $60, received trade fulfillments at .11 cents.

In another example, The Wall Street Journal's MarketBeat blog reported one stock price on Accenture's platform plummeted from over $40 at 2:47 p.m. to $.01 at 2:48 p.m. today.

"So clearly there was a flaw in the system and there were some algorithmic events that triggered a much more cataclysmic event in the marketplace," Nagy said.

The topic of this Maze Cartoon in the news:

Schwarzenegger Revokes Support for Expanded Offshore Oil Drilling

As the environmental disaster unfolds in the Gulf of Mexico, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said yesterday that he no longer supports offshore drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara, NPR reported.

"You turn on the television and see this enormous disaster, you say to yourself, 'Why would we want to take on that kind of risk?' " Schwarzenegger said at a news conference.

Despite the fact that state democrats blocked a proposal last year to allow expanded drilling, the governor had supported a new plan to allow 30 new slant wells off Santa Barbara, the site of an oil platform explosion in 1969 that polluted miles of shoreline.

On Monday, Schwarzenegger said his support had been based on numerous studies finding it was safe to drill. But now, "I see on TV, the birds drenched in oil, the fishermen out of work, the massive oil spill, oil slick destroying our precious ecosystem," the governor said.

Meanwhile, Louisina Governor Bobby Jinal reported that the oil had made its way to Louisiana's Chandeleur and Breton sounds, but officials were having trouble finding it, nola.com reported. “Newspaper photojournalist Chris Granger said he could see no concentrations of oil on the barrier islands' beaches, currently a key nesting sight for a wide array of shore and water birds,” the article stated.

“Two birds found in the oil slick were recovering at a rescue center — a gannet found Friday and a brown pelican found sometime between then and Tuesday,” according to the Associated Press. (To see how trained officials clean birds, check out this article.)

“'We’re preparing for the worst,' said Jim Hood, the attorney general of Mississippi, referring both to the spill itself and the possibility of fierce legal struggles. The state has been taking photos and video of coastal areas and counting fish and birds, he said, to have a record of what exists before the oil arrives," a New York Times article stated.

GDP grew by 3.2 percent in first quarter

The nation’s gross domestic product increased 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2010, bolstering the Obama administration’s arguments that the economy is improving.

The jump in GDP was lower that the 5.6 percent increase registered in the last quarter of 2009, but still represents significant economic growth. It’s the third quarter in a row that the U.S. economy has expanded.

President Barack Obama is scheduled to make a statement on the figures from the Rose Garden on Friday morning. (Read More)